I rescued my fancy “wallpaper” from the trash (it’s so vintage!)

This article may contain affiliate links from which Yahoo and/or the publisher may earn a commission if you purchase a product or service through those links.

When we first moved into our house, small powder bath there was a rather depressing event on the top floor. There was no sink, just a half-working toilet and old faux tiles on the walls. The floor was cement and the ceiling was collapsing. Not great.

I chased the garbage truck to use French magazines as wallpaper for the bathroom. — 1 credit 1 credit

The first thing we did was replace the toilet and install a small green vintage sink that I had found on the street years ago and had been hauling from various houses and apartments in New York City, hoping that I would eventually find a place for it. It turns out that the tiny bathroom was the perfect place for an even smaller sink that fit just a few inches on the wall.

And this is not the only thing I found on the street for this small bathroom. Almost a full year later, I was driving on the Upper East Side of Manhattan and happened to pass a Junk-Luggers truck that was filling up. As I drove by, I saw beautiful, colorful fingerprints floating across the sky towards the back of the dump truck and I stopped abruptly.

I literally jumped out of the car screaming, “Wait, wait! What are you throwing away?!” and actually threw himself like a human shield between the boxes on the street and the dump truck. The guys patiently explained that they were emptying out the townhouse and taking out all these antique and vintage books. I began frantically rummaging through the stacks, loading boxes and books into the car, and begging the guys to pull out some of the beauties I saw already thrown into the truck.

They were impatient with my cheers as I looked through the books and discovered hand-colored original bindings depicting French costumes and illustrations of traditional Roman dress. The drawings were incredibly accurate, quite strange and surprisingly colorful. I took as many as I could and drove home, and then finally thought to myself, “What are you going to do with all these drawings?” Funnily enough, discovering these prints lit a fire under me to want to revisit the upstairs powder room when I decided to wallpaper the entire space with them!

I started by painting the room a playful, saccharine green (Whirlybird Farrow and Ball). The color matched our tiny shell perfectly and also incorporated the seafoam shade that was present in the French illustrations. I painted the faux tile walls, ceiling, door and trim the same Whirlybird color. I also found round penny tiles from Nemo Tile that matched the wall and sink color perfectly and installed them over the existing cement floor. My vision was to make all the elements in the room as uniform as possible so that the visually rich wallpaper didn’t feel overwhelming. There’s often a fine line between eclectic and overcrowded, and I wanted to make sure I stayed on the right side.

I originally thought I could arrange the illustrations as scattered images, such as in a collage. But once I pulled them out of the books, I realized that there was a natural border around each set of drawings that allowed me to arrange them in a grid. I aligned the borders of each design at the top and bottom so they really looked intentional. For the installation itself, I used roll wallpaper glue.

Now this cheerful little bathroom is located right at the top of the stairs and immediately greets you with its charming green glow and quaint wallpaper. The entire project cost us about $350 (mostly for the floor tiles). To us, it feels completely unique and perfect in our home.

Looking back, I probably shouldn’t have waited for illustrations of French dump truck costumes to bring this project to life. I think you could also use vintage or reproduction botanical prints, pages from vintage atlases, or even something more modern like paper subway maps and road maps of places we’ve traveled. I saw someone make an incredible version of Mod Podge with a bunch of black and white photos they found around their house, so I think… the options are endless. Moral of the story? When it comes to wallpaper, think outside the box!

Further reading